DAVID KUBINEC'S MAINHORSE AIRLINE: THE GENEVA TAPES

Swiss Psych/Prog band Mainhorse were formed in 1969 in London,where keyboardist Patrick Moraz and bassist Jean Ristori were in search of band members and found drummer Bryson Graham along with singer David Kubinec of The World of Oz fame through an ad.For financial reasons the quartet flew back to Switzerland,adding drummer Arnold Ott and guitarist Augusto De Antoni in the mix.Three months later Ott got married and quit,Mainhorse Airline continued as a quintet,starting to record their first compositions.Some of these early recordings,most of them being ideas of Kubinec and Moraz,were collected and released in 2007 by ORK Records,as a document of the band's early formation.

This very early sound of the band contains strong 60's psychedelic vibes along with organ- smashed passages with some Classical references and THE NICE are really the greatest comparison here.The overall style is very raw,rather dated and typical of the late-60's Psych/Proto-Progressive style.Here soft psychedelic passages with some doomy drumming and bass are blended with Moraz'es dominant organ parts,with guitarust De Antoni having a distinctive jazzy edge on his playing.A few compositions have an evident rehearsal atmosphere,being more free-structured and improvised in nature. However there are plenty of virtuosic passages in a typical progressive style along the way with Moraz even performing on electric piano on some tracks, which soung a bit jazzy.The majority though of the album still is grounded in a Classical enviroment with the last composition ''God Can Fix Anything'' being an absolute compositional highlight and a nice example of what this band was capable of.

This early formation of the band did not last long.Kubinec found himself with a heart attack in hospital due to the heavy schedule of the band,soon to move back in the UK, and De Antoni also quit dissapointed by this rough situation.Kubinec relocated in former Yugoslavia in late-70's joining the band Stijene.The rest of the band continued as Mainhorse,while some of the tracks presented here made it to the official debut of the band in 1971.

''The Geneva Tapes'' is a good documentary not only of Mainhorse's first months as an act but also a nice example of the farewell psychedelic scene and the upcoming progressive heydays,being quite similar to bands in the vein of THE NICE, ELP, or BEGGARS OPERA.These particular recordings sound a bit dated but the overall performance of the band hides some decent music secrets to make this album recommended.